Greyhound racing enthusiasts excited about future in Kansas

Wednesday

Oct 12, 2016 at 12:01 AMOct 12, 2016 at 10:00 PM

ABILENE — Memories of brighter days in greyhound racing will be rekindled tonight when a local greyhound is inducted into the Greyhound Hall of Fame.

As greyhound owners from across the country gather here for the National Greyhound Association’s fall meet this week there also is renewed enthusiasm that Kansas, where the sport was born and nurtured, will again host pari-mutuel wagering.

“I think racing is coming back to Kansas,” said Vince Berland, owner of inductee Flying Stanley. “It will be a great thing for Abilene.”

He said that out-of-state owners talking at the NGA track Monday indicated they would start raising greyhounds in Kansas again if pari-mutuel wagering returns. The state of Kansas, he said, needs jobs and revenue, which pari-mutuel wagering will produce.

A change in the formula for the distribution of a track’s casino profits first must be approved by the Kansas Legislature to bring greyhound racing and slot machines to Wichita Greyhound Park and seasonally at Camptown Racetrack in Frontenac. Horse racing combined with slot machines could return to The Woodlands in Kansas City.

Wichita businessman Phil Ruffin owns all three tracks.

“So far, it sounds promising,” said Travis Bartley, president of the Kansas Greyhound Association, of a return of greyhound and horse racing. “We'll know more when the legislative session starts up again in January.”

Jobs and money

“Phil Ruffin is ready to spend money in the state just to get the tracks ready,” Bartley said.

A study prepared for the Greater Kansas Racing Alliance this spring showed that the restoration of live horse racing and greyhound racing in Kansas would generate an estimated 4,475 jobs, $291 million in annual wages and $23 million in annual state and local tax revenue — not counting revenue derived directly from gaming.

The spring of 2007 was an exciting time for greyhound racing with the second running of the Derby Lane Million.

Flying Stanley, an Abilene-born and Kansas-trained greyhound, won the world’s richest race that year, which paid a total of $1 million in purse money. Flying Stanley won by 41/2 lengths in 30.39 seconds at the St. Petersburg, Fla., racetrack. The $500,000 first-place prize helped make him the world’s highest-earning greyhound at that time, with $694,000 in career earnings at the track, which included eight stake race wins.

“That was the peak, the very pinnacle of the sport,” said Berland, of Abilene.

Since that win, pari-mutuel greyhound racing has faltered, with tracks closing in Kansas, Colorado, New England and Arizona.

In Abilene, greyhound pups that have not officially raced at a pari-mutuel racetrack are showcased each spring and fall.

The finals of this fall meet will be held today and Friday morning at the NGA track west of Abilene. An auction will be held Friday night and Saturday morning at Sterl Hall, 619 N. Rogers.

Hall of Fame inductees

Flying Stanley, along with the late owner-trainer Duane Randle and greyhound Pat C Rendezvous, will be inducted into the hall of fame in a ceremony starting at 6 tonight at 407 S. Buckeye.

Berland said that the first time around the training racetrack, it was obvious Stanley was unique.

Ferrell Pearson was the first trainer for Stanley, a son of Kiowa Sweet Trey and Flying Rimes, both owned by Berland, on Pearson’s farm in Clearwater. Berland said Pearson first indicated Stanley was special.

“The first time around the track, he hadn’t gone halfway around on the backside when Lance (Berland) goes, ‘Dad, there’s your million-dollar winner.’ We only schooled him three or four times before we sent him off,” Berland said. “He was always special. He knew he was special.”

Berland said one leadout couldn’t handle the 80-pound Stanley during the post parade, as he was eager to race.

“He just pulled so hard. You couldn’t hold him. Wherever he was going, he was just like a sled dog,” he said.

Flying Stanley started at The Woodlands in Kansas City, where he won his first five races and the Kansas Bred Juvenile. He raced at Wichita, winning the Great Kansas Shootout. He also won the prestigious World Classic at Mardi Gras, Hallandale Beach, Fla.

Berland got into raising and training greyhounds in 1986. In 1991 he sold Flying Train in the NGA auction for a record $56,000.

It is Berland’s fourth trip inside the hall of fame. He owned inductees Flying Penske and Kiowa Sweet Trey. He was inducted into the hall himself in 2011.

Greyhound racing in the United States started in the Midwest. In 1886 a national meet was held at Cheyenne Bottoms.

Greyhound owners settled in and around Abilene, which was home of the National Greyhound Association, the national registry.

Pari-mutuel wagering regulations were approved in 1986 and tracks in Wichita and Kansas City opened in 1989. Both racetracks closed in 2008.

-- Reporter Tim Horan can be reached at 822-1422 or by email at thoran@salina.com.

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